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Originally Posted by Hwed
If punching a clock 40 hours a week for overinflated union wages is your idea of sacrifice, it must be a nice life you lead.
Sacrifice is putting your life savings on the line, plus taking on a massive pile of debt, to start a new business and putting in 80 hour weeks with no guarantee of return, in the hope that you will succeed and build a better life for yourself.
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The rich of this country are not the small business owners of America, I hate to tell you. Yes, some (few) small business owners are able to get to that stage. Maybe they are shrewd enough, put in enough work, get lucky enough, whatever. But the vast majority of those who put their life, money, time, effort, heart, and soul into creating a business are NOT rich, and do NOT live high on the hog.
But this is a misunderstanding that permeates the country. I recently saw a study that showed that 20% of Americans thought they were in the top 1% of the wealthiest! 60% thought they were in the to 20%!
The Bush folks have played on this to try and make that 60% who think of themselves as in the upper crust think that they are getting a good shake when the truth is they are getting a raw deal.
There are a lot of reasons one might start their own business, to be their own boss, have a career in a field of their choice, to create self-employment when they can't find employment elsewise, to get rich, etc. Certainly I would think the vast majority of entrepeneurs do want to create a positive influence in their community, and they do want to build a pillar of that community. But the common thread is they want to own that pillar.
A union worker wants to build that pillar as well, but they just aren't stuck on having to own it. This fantasy concept of the lazy union worker who just punches a clock for a fat and happy life is just that: pure fantasy.
There are probably about as many union workers looking for an easy safe paycheck as there are managers who are maliciously looking for ways to screw their employees and investors for their personal agrandizement. The bad ones are out there, but they aren't the rule.